Friday 15 August 2008

BJOG Release: Stop Smoking If You Are Pregnant

�New enquiry to be published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology examines the results of maternal smoke on birth outcomes.


Previous studies get focused on the consequences of smoke during each pregnancy, in isolation. This new study analysed outcomes according to whether women continued to smoke in successive pregnancies, or managed to apply up smoking after their first maternity. Previous pregnancy outcomes were compared to subsequent maternity outcomes in the same sample population.


244, 840 mothers from New South Wales, Australia who had two consecutive singleton deliveries over the period 1994 - 2004 were studied by Dr Mohammed Mohsin and Professor Bin Jalaludin at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney. The majority of women were between 25 to 34 years honest-to-god and 87% had prenatal care by the 20th week of pregnancy. The interval 'tween first and second fry was between 12 - 24 months in a third of mothers studied.


The proportions of mothers who smoke-cured were 18.7% during the first-class honours degree pregnancy and 17.5% in the second pregnancy. Researchers found that 72.7% of smokers in their first pregnancy continued to smoke in their second pregnancy.


Preterm births were the result in 5.9% of all first and 4.9% of all second deliveries. The findings indicate that mothers world Health Organization had a previous preterm birth were at an increased risk of a repeat preterm birth in the succeeding pregnancy. Researchers found the risk of having a preterm parentage in a subsequent maternity was increased for those who carried on smoking and was greatest for heavy smokers.


Low nascence weight (LBW) was seen in 5.2% of all number 1 and 3.8% of all second births. Continued smoking in the subsequent pregnancy was associated with the highest rate of LBW infants. Researchers institute that if a mother continued to smoke heavily during her second maternity, the odds ratio of a low birthweight baby (compared with babies of women world Health Organization never smoked) was 4, compared with 2.1 if she gave up completely.


Others findings from the study point to the increased risk of poor perinatal outcomes associated with smoke, namely; stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Researchers believe that smoking english hawthorn increase the risk of intrauterine infections which result in eutherian mammal complications. Smoking during gestation may likewise stimulate the production of hormones such as prostaglandin E2 which causes the womb to contract, so resulting in preterm births. In increase, smoking reduces the grade of eccentric III collagen, a sinewy structural protein, and this may increase the peril of preterm rupture of the membranes. The results in this study are consistent with previous research on smoke during pregnancy.


Professor Bin Jalaludin from the University of New South Wales and Director at the Centre for Research, Evidence Management and Surveillance at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, aforesaid "We know that women who smoke during maternity have smaller babies. This study shows that women who hummer in their first pregnancy but non in their second maternity still continue to have a treble higher danger of a small baby in the second maternity compared to women wHO do non smoke at all, although the risk of infection is less than for women wHO continue to smoke, which is fourfold higher.


"This is an important finding and suggests that thither appears to be a carry-over effect of smoke from i pregnancy to another although the reasons for this are not clear. It is important that we continue in our efforts to boil down cigarette